Home organization: Piano Clutter

The top of the piano is one of those places in my home that accumulates clutter with lightening speed. Most of the junk has absolutely nothing to do with music; it's just a convenient place for everybody over the age of 5 to put stuff out of toddler reach. It drives me crazy.

Fortunately, I have a friend who also has 10 children and is an expert at keeping her home clean. All the time. She's amazing.

So I asked her over to give me some advice. And I did a Very Brave Thing: I didn't clean my house before hand! Not one piece of paper, book, shoe, or toy. I wanted her to see my home's trouble spots as they really are. And I am so glad I did. It was one of the smartest things I could've done!

Right away my friend was able to identify several needs in my home, one of which was how to combat my piano clutter problem. In this short video I put into practice the three things she said I needed to do to keep my piano area looking nice.

After making this video, I moved the framed wall print higher and am loving the simple look:

Here are the 3 tips again:

1- You can't keep everything organized all the time. So, organize half and hide the other half. Give yourself places to put things out of sight like baskets or cute bins.

2- Use symmetry. Centering and balancing items makes them look like they belong. Things that aren't symmetric look like clutter themselves, even if they're not.

3- Organize until you have extra room. If you organize until everything just fits, it won't last. Keep organizing until you have extra shelf, drawer, or basket space. Doing this is key - I made this video over a week ago and the top of my piano has looked great the entire time! (I used to clean it and it wouldn't last 2 hours). Clutter still gets dropped there, but now it goes in the empty basket. When I get around to it, I clean it out. It used to look messy all the time, now it looks nice all the time (I cannot tell you how much I'm loving this!)

It seems also that once a clutter pile gets started, it grows amazingly fast. It's just not painful to add to an already existing mess. Now, because it always looks nice, I've noticed people (including myself!) think twice before dropping things there and are more likely to just put things away. :)

Blessings to you and your family!